"Mario Paci, the founder of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, made crucial changes in the musical culture of the Far East with the introduction of Western symphonic music. The study first examines the subjectivity of Mario Paci, the artist, through the reconstruction of his experience and the way in which he perceived the vicissitudes of his existence during this turbulent period of history between the two World Wars. Secondly, it places Paci's activities and career in the social-historical context of Shanghai's foreign concession communities for the purpose of investigating the relationship between Paci's entry into this context and the changes that were soon made in the context of musical sociability."--Stanford SDR page